After that Kolskegg took a beaker full of mead, and drank it off and went on fighting afterwards; and so it came about that those brothers sprang up on the ship of Vandil and his brother, and Kolskegg went on one side, and Gunnar on the other.  Against Gunnar came Vandil, and smote at once at him with his sword, and the blow fell on his shield.  Gunnar gave the shield a twist as the sword pierced it, and broke it short off at the hilt.  Then Gunnar smote back at Vandil, and three swords seemed to be aloft, and Vandil could not see how to shun the blow.  Then Gunnar cut both his legs from under him, and at the same time Kolskegg ran Karli through with a spear.  After that they took great war spoil.

Thence they held on south to Denmark, and thence east to Smoland,[15] and had victory wherever they went.  They did not come back in autumn.  The next summer they held on to Reval, and fell in there with sea-rovers, and fought at once, and won the fight.  After that they steered east to Osel,[16] and lay there somewhile under a ness.  There they saw a man coming down from the ness above them; Gunnar went on shore to meet the man, and they had a talk.  Gunnar asked him his name, and he said it was Tofi.  Gunnar asked again what he wanted.

“Thee I want to see,” says the man.  “Two warships lie on the other side under the ness, and I will tell thee who command them:  two brothers are the captains—­one’s name is Hallgrim, and the other’s Kolskegg.  I know them to be mighty men of war; and I know too that they have such good weapons that the like are not to be had.  Hallgrim has a bill which he had made by seething-spells; and this is what the spells say, that no weapon shall give him his death-blow save that bill.  That thing follows it too that it is known at once when a man is to be slain with that bill, for something sings in it so loudly that it may be heard a long way off—­such a strong nature has that bill in it.”

Then Gunnar sang a song—­

  Soon shall I that spearhead seize,
  And the bold sea-rover slay,
  Him whose blows on headpiece ring,
  Heaper up of piles of dead. 
  Then on Endil’s courser[17] bounding,
  O’er the sea-depths I will ride,
  While the wretch who spells abuseth,
  Life shall lose in Sigar’s storm.[18]

“Kolskegg has a short sword; that is also the best of weapons.  Force, too, they have—­a third more than ye.  They have also much goods, and have stowed them away on land, and I know clearly where they are.  But they have sent a spy-ship off the ness, and they know all about you.  Now they are getting themselves ready as fast as they can; and as soon as they are ‘boun,’ they mean to run out against you.  Now you have either to row away at once, or to busk yourselves as quickly as ye can; but if ye win the day, then I will lead you to all their store of goods.”

Gunnar gave him a golden finger-ring, and went afterwards to his men and told them that war-ships lay on the other side of the ness, “and they know all about us; so let us take to our arms, and busk us well, for now there is gain to be got”.